Scottish girl, English military
by hannahisnotarealperson
Summary: Sam's house is burnt down, and there is no suspicious circumstances. But Sam is always getting into trouble and her life takes an sudden turn as she is recruited into a section of the British Military, Cherub.
1. Chapter 1

The day my house burnt down, I knew would change my life. But perhaps I didn't realise just how much it would change. This day, I was just Sam Cation. Short for Samantha, but no one ever called me that. There was nothing unusual about my morning, got up brushed my teeth, went to school got mocked again. I can't remember what for anymore. But then at Lunch, a little kid, two years below was being picked on by some older students.

"Oi!" I shouted. "Why don't ye pick someone yer own size? Like me?" The boys laughed. I mean I was tiny, but I can throw a punch like nobody's business!

"Don't think just because yer a gurl I willnea hit ya." One of them threatened. I grinned maliciously.

"I'd like ta see ye try!" I mocked and thrust the heel of my hand into his nose. It smashed spraying blood everywhere. The other two charged at me and I kicked a foot out at one of them, pushing off him and elbowing the other one in the face. One fell to the floor groaning and clutching his stomach. The other merely staggered. He glared at me an-

"SAMANTHA ANNABEL CATION!" Snapped Mrs Jones. The head teacher. "Don't you dare move another muscle!" I turned to her and threw my hands up.

"Would ye believe me if I told ye it wasnae me?"

"Erm, no." Mrs Jones replied. "You are suspended. Go home." I didn't move. "Now!"

I trudged to my locker grabbed my bag, and sauntered off home. I heard the fire engines as I neared my house, but I'd never dreamed it could've been my house. I rounded the corner and a chaos ensued.

"Get the hose!"

"Someone get the ladder-"

"There's a woman in here! I've got her!"

*oh no, mum!*

I ran forwards but was restrained by a fireman.

"Please!" I begged. "It's my mum, let me through she's my mum!" The fireman loosed his grip slightly and I pushed through. Paramedics swarmed around her. There was one yelling for details on her.

"Jeanette Cation. She's highly asthmatic!" I yelled. One of the paramedics swore. The blaze behind me burned into the darkening sky and ripped through my back. They lifted her into an ambulance and I tried to follow.

"My mum..." I whimpered pointing at her. I was allowed in.

After the panic at my house the hospital was creepily quiet and clean. I waited outside jiggling my leg with nerves. A doctor came out. I could tell by the look on his face the verdict.

"Too much smoke inhalation?" I said, my voice breaking. He nodded solemnly and I breathed in shakily. A tear spilt out of my eye and trickled softly down my cheek. I went into the hospital room and held my mothers hand. It was stone cold and my tears dripped on to it. Laying my head down next to my mum, I sobbed freely.

"Is breá liom." I said softly. The only phrase I knew in Gaelic, 'I love you'.

The Fifes local Home was a dump. I stood in the doorway with my half-decent shoulder bag, squishy green hold-all and laptop.

"This place is vile." I stated.

The worker laughed dryly.

"Yep. Welcome to your new home." He walked up the stairs and opened the doorway of a small white bedroom. A blonde girl sat on one of the two hard beds. She got up and I noticed she had really pretty green eyes.

"Hey I'm Lauren." She said in a bright English accent.

"Sam." I answered shaking her hand. I dumped my bag on to the bed. Mike the worker said bye and left us alone. I unpacked my stuff and left it lying on the bed.

"So," Lauren said. "Your mum just died right?"

"Yeah. I'd, erm, rather no talk about it right now if you don't mind." I said back. I pointed to the t-shirt under her bed. "Jack wills. Expensive!"

"Oh, god! I know!" Lauren said, diving off into a rabble of how expensive clothes were.

Lauren was nice and we became quite good friends. I'd often wander about a bit when she was at school and once I ran into one of the guys big brother.

"My little brothers got a broken nose because of you."

"Well, he shouldnae have walked into a room and started picking on a kid fer na reason." I retorted. The guy raised an eyebrow and his 11 cronies laughed and 'ooh'ed. I turned and went to stride off, but he grabbed the corner of my shirt. He punched me in the face and his gang members joined in. I was soon reduced to a heap on the floor being kicked and punched. They left, scorning me and snorting in disgust. Lauren came along as I was painfully dragging myself along. She wrapped her arm around me and helped me along.

"Remind mah ta keep mah mouth shut next time." I groaned as we hobbled into the Home.

As we reached our room, my leg gave way and I collapsed on the bed. I sank into a deep sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke in an unfamiliar, overly white, bright room. Blinking a couple of times to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness, I took a look under the covers to confirm, yup. I was naked. I muttered.

"What the fuu-?"

My head pounded like someone was repeatedly trying acquaint the internal functions of my skull with an inanimate object used in construction works. My body wrecked like that time I 'fell' (was pushed) down the art stairs and I honestly didn't have a clue where the hell I was or how I got here.

Rubbing my temples I sat up, groaning noisily. I noticed the strange clothes set out at the end of the bed I was in. A ridiculously bright orange T-shirt made me feel as if I had been put in some cheesy movie to do with underage offenders. Or had actually been caught doing something stupid, which was much more likely. The combat trousers made me want to laugh. Was this some kind of army based school they sent kids if they didn't behave. I did like the boots.

The room was possibly the nicest room I've ever been in, except from the white-ness of it. There was a TV, kettle, miniature fridge and phone in there. Out the window I could see some kids doing stretches on a running track. Children's home, obviously, but I'd never one as well supplied and awesome as this.

I've never really been good with patience, so I left the room and began wandering around the place. I didn't run into anyone on the floor I was on, so naturally I found the lift and went down it. I was wandering about when I saw an open door. I peeked through and noticed a woman sat at the desk. Walking awkwardly into the room, I waved slightly.

"Errm, hi? You wouldnae happen t-" I began before the woman at the desk cut over me in a bored voice.

"Mrs Asker will see you now."

She pointed at the door over her shoulder, not moving her eyes from the computer screen.

"O-k." I replied laughing slightly. Glancing at her, she was so easy to read. Childless, un-married woman, late 30's, pet cat, smokes and low life expectancy. I entered 'Mrs Asker's' office. She looked about mid-forties, must have had at least 2 small children and I liked her immediately from the way she didn't look at me. By that I mean, she didn't look at me with eyes full of pity, or like I was a small child that needed looked after. She smiled and gestured to the seat in front her desk.

"You are Samantha Campbell. Right?" She asked.

"Sam." I corrected. "How did I get here? I mean clearly some sort of drug was administered while I was asleep last night at the Home, but why?"

Mrs Asker laughed.

"You'll find out soon enough, Sam. You haven't had any ill effects have you?" She paused just enough for me to shake my head. "That's good. Well, I'm Zara, Chairwoman of CHERUB. What do you think of CHERUB so far?"

This time I laughed.

"Some Homes are a lot better funded than others. It seems epic, but you cannae judge a book by its cover!" I replied. This provoked a small smile from Zara.

"No. You can't." She replied. "We have 280 odd pupils here and I am hoping that you'll become another one. Four swimming pools, six tennis courts, an all-weather football field and a shooting range all come in the bag. Each class here is 10 pupils or less, so no bunking off! Everyone has to learn at least two foreign languages and a higher proportion of students go to leading universities than any of the top public schools. Sound good?"

I shrugged.

"That part sounds good. But what's the catch? The government gives clearly huge amounts of money to fund this. You have just kinda kidnapped me, everyone here must be pretty bloody smart. This cannae be an ordinary private school. You also aren't asking for any kind of payment." I said, crossing my arms defiantely. Zara smiled again.

"You pick up on things very quickly Sam." I rolled my eyes slightly. "We have two criteria for you to accept. One is passing our entrance exams. The other is becoming an agent for the British Intelligent."

I burst out laughing.

"Using kids! That's genius, who would ever expect a kid to be spying on them!" I exclaimed in awe. Zara nodded. I paused.

"But why me?" I asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Because, Sam, YOU are exceptionally fit, physically, intelligent, observant and a bit of a trouble-maker." Zara replied. The final comment made me scowl.

"They deserved it. They were picking on the little kids! That boy hadnae done anything wrong! I was just sticking up for him. It's no my fault that everyone else is a coward!"

"Hey!" Zara said calmingly. "I wasn't accusing you anything. I agree. It's just we can't have the operatives wimping out on a mission can we?"

I grudgingly nodded.

"The exam is split into 5 parts and will last the rest of the day. Are you for it?"

"Hell yeah!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi! Sorry if there are any mistakes! I wrote it on my phone an haven't checked it so Sorry in advance!**  
The tests were the most gruelling things I have ever done in my life. So far.  
The first one started off with an entrance to a dojo. This was not going to go well. A skinny boy waiting for me on the matt as Zara led the way.  
"Sam, this is Bruce. He'll be sparring with you."  
We nodded politely to each other.  
"You'll have five rounds. You can submit by speaking or banging your hand on the mat."  
"i'll go easy on you." Bruce laughed.  
"Don't you even think aboot it!" i replied around my mouth guard and then we squared each other off. The whistle blew and he made the first move. Flying forwards with a outstretched hand aiming for my nose, Bruce moved so quickly it was hard to see him move. I caught his fist I brought my elbow up into his face. He quickly jabbed his fingers right into my kidneys. I stumbled backwards in pain and then suddenly was on my back in unendurable agony.  
"I submit!" I called. Bruce held out his hand to help me up.  
"You alright?" He checked.  
"Give us a second." I wheezed. "You hit in the worst place possible."  
Bruce frowned.  
"But I didn't get your kidneys I was slightly- oh..."  
"Yeah. Oh."  
I hit my hands together. I nodded to Zara, signalling that I was ready to go again. Even though I wasn't.  
This time as Bruce lunged left I spun around behind him, slammed my hand into his spine and put an arm around his throat. I forced him down, but the second he was on the ground he sprung back up. He lifted a foot to kick but I grabbed it and twisted. He slammed into the mat. This time it was him yelling to submit. We squared up again, Bruce lunged for my hand as I thrust the heel of my other hand out. We collided and ricocheted off each other.  
I turned to Zara.  
"There is no point continuing. Brucie boy here slightly better than me. Clearly you've had martial arts training. Are you a black belt?"  
Bruce nodded.  
"Third dan." I nodded. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" He panted.  
I grinned.  
"Used to have two older brothers. And then lived on the streets before I found my mum again. Got into loads of fights."  
Zara gestured for us to leave and I called over my shoulder as we left.  
"Nice meeting ya Brucie!"  
Bruce yelled after us as we left.  
"Don't call me BRUCIE!"

I was still chuckling as we entered the test papers room. The 'real' test. The paper tested mathematical skills and verbal skills. They got progressively harder as the paper went on. Normally I would have easily done them but with the pain in my shoulder, back and ovaries killing me I ran out of time on the Maths. It was still bugging me as Zara left me to eat.  
I couldn't find the cutlery and it took several "can't talk to orange" before someone showed me. I found out only those cleared by Zara could talk to me. So I decided to annoy them by sitting in the middle of a table in the middle of the room, disrupting lots of people's meals. It was worth it.  
The food was amazing, I'd never had anything nicer than the CHERUB's lasagna! But if I knew what was next I wouldn't have eaten so much.

I returned to Zara's room, to see a cage with a chicken in it.  
"Do you like eating chicken?" She asked, not looking at me.  
"I guess."  
"Would you like to eat this chicken ?"  
"Theoretically yes and no." I replied cryptically.  
Zara looked at me, curiously. She asked me to explain.  
"I want to be a vegetarian because the treatment of animals, and because I think it's wrong. But I'm not at the moment because it is too difficult to go out of my way not to eat meat. So I would in certain circumstances, but if I could avoid it no."  
Zara nodded as I spoke as if she were weighing up the argument.  
"That's an excellent point. One I haven't heard before, so if i asked you to kill it you would oppose to it?" She asked, inclining her head as if she just thought of it. I wiggled my hands in the air.  
"Well, it depends on the circumstances. If the chicken was a mass murdering chicken and I had no other choice, then the chicken might die. But if there was any other way I would probably take it." I replied. Zara nodded thoughtfully. She handed me a pen.  
"This chicken is a mass murdering psychopath, it will Murder 1,000 people if you don't stab it in the neck."  
I smiled grimly at irony, pointed the chickens arse away from me and swung the biro into the poor birds neck. It exploded, not literally. The far cage wall was splattered with chicken poo. My arms covered in blood. I wiped them grimly on my T-shirt.  
"Ew. And if you honestly thought that chicken was going to murder someone you need to see a psychiatrist." I said to Zara. I couldn't read her face to see how well I'd done. But I don't think I did too badly. We moved on.

"Collect the brick from the end of the pool." I was instructed. I looked at the chlorine filled pool and was filled with unease. I dove in, swam to the end and grabbed the brick. I quickly peeked through my eyelashes and saw a shark inches from my face. I screamed and thrashed up towards the surface. I clambered out quickly and clumsily, panting heavily. I closed my eyes tightly.  
"There was nothing in there." I muttered to myself. "Nothing in there. You are fine. Not going to happen."  
Zara came over.  
"Are you ok?" She asked motherly. I nodded still tightly closing my eyes. I suddenly stood up and said brightly:  
"What's next?"  
The last test took place on top of a high wooden course! It was a simple obstacle course but about 10 feet in the air. If not more. It was a long climb up a rope ladder, easy, then slide across the pole, up a second ladder, over narrow planks of wood with gaps that needed jumped between them. That was all of the course I could see from there. I scrambled up the ladder with ease and saw two guys there. They introduced themselves as Paul and Arif, they were in navy shirts. Paul went first across the pole, then I followed, Arif went behind behind me. In case I slipped I presumed. We hurried up the second ladder.  
"The trick here is not to look down." Arif said. I immediately looked down. I shouldn't have looked down. I grabbed Arif's hand.  
"Sorry." I muttered quickly. "But I willnae be able to do it unless somebody pulls me." He laughed at me and we jumped across the planks.  
One the last jump I squealed. It was about 1 and a half metres wide. Arif, the git that he was, was making me jump this one by myself. He hopped across.  
"Come on." He coaxed. "If it was on the ground you'd do this easy."  
"Well, IT'S NOT ON THE BLOODY GROOND IN CASE YOU HADNAE NOTICED!" I screamed back. Paul and Arif grinned. They said something and laughed. I leapt across.  
"What's so funny? Are you laughing at me?" I demanded. I suddenly looked back across the planks. Pointing wordlessly, I was in a mild state of shock.  
"Last bit." Paul said and jumped off the edge. He hit a very small, blue muddy mat at the bottom.  
"Holy cra-?" I gasped. Arif waited expectantly at me after Paul called the all clear. I walked to the edge, and the edge fell out from beneath me. The flight down was breath taking. Thin branches whipped me, and I gained several cuts but I didn't care. When I landed on the muddy mat I was laughing, almost hysterically.

"So how do you think you did?" Zara asked as I returned to her room. I smiled.  
"Not too bad." Zara grinned at me.  
"Not too bad? You've done possibly the best I've seen." She laughed. I was shocked, I thought I'd done alright, but not that good.  
"The first test got you a high pass. You had great skills and managed to have a decent fight, but retired when you knew you couldn't win. The second was very good, your verbal skills are exceptionally high. The maths questions got just over average for this school." Zara referred to some notes she had on her desk.  
"The 3rd test. How do you think you did?"  
I thought for a second.  
"I thought I did moderately well. I didn't want to kill the chicken for no reason. It would be pointless, but when you have me a reason I did." Zara nodded and agreed with me. I internally beamed.  
"The fourth test however, what happened? You got the brick, but you freaked out after you grabbed it. What was it?"  
I shuffled in my chair.  
"I hallucinated as a kid a shark getting my brothers and depths now I often remember it. I'm usually fine! Just, I freaked out." Zara nodded and scribbled down something in her notes.  
"We are still going to give you a pass for that. And the fifth test you did well, as side from having to hold Asif's hand." Zara grinned slyly up at me.  
"Don't tell anyone! Please?" I begged. Zara laughed and assured me that this was confidential.  
"Overall you had a brilliant pass. And we would be delighted to have you here. You can have two days to contact us with your decision."  
I laughed and said.  
"Two days? I don't need them. It would be my honour." I mock bowed and Zara laughed.


End file.
